Take Me Back to Paris
by MsAlexisCriss
Summary: The Clave is evaluating the NY Institute in just a couple of weeks and everyone's stressed. Rafe is on his way to his aunt office when he overhears a conversation between his dads. They are talking about Alec's birthday and how the plans to celebrate it were ruined with the Clave notification. What he does next is what any kid his age would do, make sure his dad get what he wants.
**Hello again, I know I promised a multi-chapter AU but I found this in my drafts and decided to share it. It's a short one-shot I wrote when we found out about the existence of one Rafael Santiago. Anyway, I'll probably post my new fic this weekend, but I wanted to share this story first. I really hope you like it. Btw, I dropped one or two F bombs somewhere in there, hence the rating...you've been warned ;)**

 **Thanks for reading!  
**

* * *

 **Take Me Back to Paris**

It all started a week ago when Rafe, unintentionally, overheard a conversation between his dads. They were at the Institute, he and his little brother, Max, were training for their upcoming evaluations. Just two days ago the Clave had notified them that they would be evaluating the New York Institute in a couple of weeks; it had been a hasty decision and therefore everyone was stressed out—teachers and students alike, they all were on pins and needles.

"Please, Rafe," his uncle and tutor, Jace, said, "go to our office and see if your aunt Clary is done with her phone call. We need her here to help us go over the runes."

Rafe nodded and as fast as he could, ran through the endless halls of the Institute to get to his aunt's office. On his way there, the young Shadowhunter passed next to one of the other offices and saw his two dads. The door was slightly ajar, so he could hear that they were having some sort of discussion.

"Please, Alexander." His papa, Magnus, was saying. "Be reasonable."

"Reasonable!? You think I'm being unreasonable!? By the angel, Magnus! I'm just asking for some kind of peace! Is that too much to ask!?" His dad, Alec, yelled back. He was exasperated, as he never, ever, was. He had been like that since they had gotten the notification from the Clave.

"Alexander…"

"What!?" Alec snapped.

Rafe tried to walk away and go straight to his aunt's office like his uncle had instructed him, but curiosity took over him and he leaned over the door to try to listen to his dads' conversation more clearly. After all, his dads never fought, so he was really intrigued to know what was the reason behind this discussion.

"You can't ask me not to do anything, it's your birthday, darling." Magnus said.

Rafe could tell that his papa was being cautious with his words, but it wasn't working, his dad was definitely not in the mood for anything.

"Precisely, Magnus. It's my birthday! Mine! Am I not allowed to choose whatever the fucking hell I want?"

Rafe covered his mouth with surprise. His dad never cursed, he always said that they should be rational and control their emotions. _'Emotions are dangerous,'_ he always said, _'learn to control them, so they don't end up controlling you. Remember that the tongue has no bones but is strong enough to break a heart. Be careful with your words.'_ And as far as Rafe could tell his dad wasn't being very careful with his, so this only meant that whatever was bothering him was serious.

"Okay, calm down. Why are you so worked out? I only suggested a silly party. It's nothing I haven't suggested before, darling. I know that among Shadowhunters it's not a tradition to celebrate anything, but we've been together for almost a decade and we have celebrated your birthday all these years, why is this one any different? And, why are you yelling at me for no reason, huh? Don't you think that I, as your husband, at least, deserve to know what's really going on?"

Rafe saw his dad exhaling loudly. He was leaning against the desk and he looked tired. Rafe hadn't noticed the two dark circles that overshadowed his dad's beautiful eyes.

"I'm sorry, I just…" Alec hesitated.

Rafe saw his papa taking a seat next to his dad and immediately placing a protective arm around the Shadowhunter's shoulders. They always did that, it was a Lightwood-Bane thing. Whenever one of them felt sad or worried or angry, they always tried to show each other that they were not alone. That they had their family there with them to help them go through whatever hell they were going.

"What's wrong, Alexander?"

"Everything." Alec said. "The stupid evaluations are coming up and everyone is stressed out. We haven't figured out who killed those werewolves outside the Bronx and Maia is this close to snap my neck in two, and to top that my dad is being a pain in the ass as per usual. He called this morning to tell me, once again, how we should be training and raising our kids."

"Alexander…" Magnus murmured, "everything will be fine." He said. "First, don't worry about the Clave and their pointless evaluations. The Institute is fine, more than fine, I'd say. I have seen a lot of administrations come and go, and let me tell you that what Clary and Jace are doing is beyond any Clave expectation. The kids are doing great. I mean, have you seen ours? Blueberry is only seven and he's already controlling his magic, plus he's a pro with the bow. And Rafe is the best in combat class. Have you seen him fight? He was born to be a warrior."

Alec smiled, and Rafe felt a funny thing in the pit of his stomach because he could tell that his dads were proud of them both and that made him feel extremely happy.

"We will find out who killed those werewolves and even if we didn't I would never, ever, let Maia or anyone hurt you, much less snap that lovely neck of yours in two, did you hear me?" Magnus asked.

Alec nodded and rested his head on his husband's shoulder.

"And about your always charming and wise father…" Magnus continued, "you know he's just trying to help."

Alec chuckled.

"I know that his ways are a bit...unconventional, but don't be too hard on him. He's just worried about the kids, he's trying his best."

"Since when are you his defense attorney, huh?" Alec asked playfully.

"Since he helped us approve the law so Downworlders' kids could train as any Shadowhunter." Magnus admitted. "And maybe since he became my official father in-law. We're legal family after all." He added with a smile.

Alec smiled back and sighed loudly.

"Now, Alexander...are you going to tell me why you don't want us to celebrate your birthday next week?" Magnus insisted.

"It's not that I don't want to," Alec admitted, "I was actually already working on something to celebrate it, but then we got the stupid notification from the Clave and now every time I think about my birthday I can't help but think about what-could-have-been and won't-be because the Clave has a terrible timing."

"What did you have in mind?" Magnus asked curiously.

"It's stupid."

"Alexander..."

"Fine." Alec rolled his eyes at his husband.

Rafe tried not to laugh. His dad always said that he didn't roll his eyes, but he always did. Whenever he felt trapped or exasperated he rolled his eyes. It was a natural response that both Rafe and Max had inherited.

"I wanted us to go on vacation, the four of us. I wanted you to take me back to Paris for my birthday. I wanted to get away from all these responsibilities. I wanted us to feel young and happy with our kids. I wanted them to see all those places we visited during our first time there. I wanted some alone time for us as a family without all the others. Don't take me wrong, I love them, I really do, especially the kids, but I just wanted something for the four of us, just Rafe, Max, you and me, but apparently that can't be. We can't leave when the evaluations are coming up and I feel so frustrated. If only I weren't so responsible, if only I could just say _'fuck it all, I'm going on vacation with my family,'_ but I can't...we can't."

"Oh, Alexander." Magnus said, hugging him tightly. "I know that we can't just go on vacation right now, but that doesn't mean that we can't have a more intimate celebration just the four of us if that's what you want. You know I can always glamour the loft so nobody can find us, and we can spend your birthday watching movies or trying to bake you a cake while playing with the kids."

"That's why I asked you not to throw one of your parties." Alec said.

"And couldn't you have just asked me that without yelling at me? Haven't I proven to be a good listener all these years?"

"Yes, yes, you have. I'm sorry...I just felt so frustrated. I was mad because every year that passes I get older and in years to come going on vacation and enjoying our family won't be part of the menu." Alec confessed.

"Why not?"

"Because I'm going to be a geriatric old man in a wheelchair, Magnus, that's why. I want to enjoy my family while I still can, but the Clave seems to have different plans for us."

Rafe felt sad just thinking about the future, but he put that feeling aside and walked away from the office without hearing the rest of the conversation. He had an idea in mind and for it to come true he had to put some things in motion. If his dad wanted Paris as his birthday gift, Rafe was going to make sure he got Paris.

o-o-o-o-o

Some days later Rafe was making his way to his little brother's room in the middle of the night. These past days he had been doing an extensive research to give his dad Alec an unforgettable birthday present. His aunts and uncles had helped in a way. He hadn't shared his real plan with them, but he had asked them about that time his dads had gone to some romantic getaway to Paris and some other cities. His aunt Izzy, very kindly, had given him a postcard that his dad Alec had sent her when they were visiting that city, while his uncle Jace had provided some really nice pictures.

Now everything was ready and Rafe just needed his little brother's help to set the plan in motion.

"Max, wake up." Rafe whispered, softly poking his little brother. "Hermano, come on, wake up."

"What's happening?" Max asked, barely opening his eyes and rubbing them to get rid of the sleepiness.

"Wake up, we have to get everything ready."

"Ready for what?" Max asked, confused. His brain wasn't awake enough to make sense of what his brother was saying.

"To prepare dad his birthday gift." Rafe said, picking up Chairman Meow. The cat always slept in Max's room. The Chairman simply loved Max, he was his favorite of them all. Rafe had the feeling that Max used a combination of his adorable charming self with magic to get the cat to love him more.

"Can't it wait until tomorrow?" Max protested. "It's 3am, Rafe."

"No," Rafe said, turning on the lights of the room, "come on, hermano! We have to hurry. Dad's always the first one up. We don't want him walking on us before everything is ready."

"But it's too early and-" Max kept complaining.

"Stop complaining, Max." Rafe said. "I let you sleep more than enough."

"What are we doing for dad's birthday anyway?"

"Here." Rafe said, handing his brother the postcard and some pictures.

The postcard showed a beautiful landscape of Paris with the Eiffel Tower in the back and the Seine River at its side. The pictures were from some streets, sights and restaurants around the city—both Magnus and Alec looked very happy in them.

"Paris?" Max questioned confused.

"Yes, Paris." Rafe said with a mischievous smile.

"I don't understand." Max confessed.

"It's pretty obvious, hermano." Rafe said, rolling his eyes. "We're recreating one of these—specifically this one." Rafe said, pointing to one of the pictures. It showed a lovely restaurant on the banks of the Seine River. It had a couple of lamps hanging over the tables and vines all around them. It looked like quite a magical place and both their dads had the biggest of the smiles on their faces, so that only meant that they had enjoyed their time there.

"What do you mean by recreating?"

Rafe smiled. His little brother was so innocent sometimes. "I know for a fact that dad wanted Paris for his birthday and since thanks to the Clave we can't go to Paris, we're bringing Paris to him."

"How?" Max asked a bit scared.

"With my brain and your magic, of course." Rafe said nonchalantly.

"My-my...magic? But our dads said I should never use it without supervision."

"I know what they said, but I will be supervising you, so it's all good."

Max seemed to think about it for a minute, but what his brother had just said sound convincing enough.

"Okay."

"Excellent, now hurry." Rafe clapped his hands excitedly. "And bring the Chairman with you, he will be part of the decoration."

o-o-o-o-o

Magnus opened his eyes a bit confused. He didn't know if he had been dreaming or if it had actually happened, but he could almost swear that he had heard the familiar sound of a portal being closed.

The room was dark and Alec was peacefully sleeping by his side, so he figured he had imagined it all. Alec was a light sleeper, so if he was still sleeping then everything was okay.

Magnus snuggled closer to his husband and closed his eyes, but the murmur of voices made him open them again.

 _"Shhhhhhhhhh!"_

Magnus clearly heard someone shushing.

"Alexander, wake up." He said, poking his husband a bit harshly.

"By the Angel, Magnus. I told you not to wake me up so early, I want to sleep late today." Alec complained without even opening his eyes.

"I know, darling, but I think someone broke into our home." Magnus said in a low voice.

"What?" Alec asked alarmed, sitting up really fast.

"Someone's out there." Magnus said, motioning Alec to listen more attentively.

A loud babbling could be heard through the door. It was clear that the burglars were somewhere in their living room.

"The kids." Alec said all worried.

"Don't worry, I already glamoured their rooms. No one's entering there but us." Magnus said, getting up from bed and walking to the door. Alec was right behind him, bow and arrow in hand, ready to kill the first person in sight.

Magnus placed a protective spell in front of them and swung the door open.

What happened next was so fast that Magnus didn't even have time to process it. As soon as the door opened Alec shot an arrow to the dark silhouette standing in the middle of their living room, the man caught it mid air and turned around just to complain.

"What the hell, Alec!?"

It was Jace, head of the New York Institute, and Alec's adoptive brother and parabatai.

"What are you d-" Alec didn't finish his question because in that moment they both noticed the two other adults standing in there, and the unbelievable mess that their living room was.

The entire place was completely upside down. The furniture was all covered in what looked like vines, but Magnus was sure it was some sort of poison ivy; the once laminated floor was now paved with bits and pieces of grass, the walls were covered in paint of all the colors, and their poor cat was petrified in what looked like some sort of ice sculpture.

"What happened here?" Magnus asked alarmed.

Immediately, the three adults, Jace, Izzy and Simon, looked at each other and stood together forming a line. It was clear that they were trying to protect someone, or a couple of someones, Magnus guessed. He and Alec could see the two pair of tiny legs hiding behind their aunt and uncles.

"It was my fault," Izzy immediately said, "I gave them the postcard."

"And I may have provided a couple of pictures," Jace added, "but I swear I didn't know about any of this. I was pretty surprised when they called, actually."

"It was my fault, papa." Max said, coming out from behind his aunt Izzy. He was all covered in paint. His blue skin was barely noticeable with that much color. "I couldn't control my magic and these plants started to grow very fast. I tried to stop them, but then the buckets of paint exploded and-"

"It was not his fault." Rafe said, stepping in front of his little brother and quickly placing him behind him. As well as his brother, he was bathed in paint. "This was all my idea." He admitted.

"No, it wasn't, I did this." Max said, standing next to his brother.

"Don't lie, hermano. I did this. I swear, papa. This was all my idea." Rafe said.

Magnus didn't really have to ask whose idea this had been because this little mischief had Rafael Santiago's name written all over it. Of the two of them their eldest son was the troublemaker—the mastermind behind every catastrophe in the Lightwood-Bane household. But that was not what had Magnus a bit startled, but the fact that his two sons were trying to protect each other so courageously. Magnus had never experienced something like that. He had never had a family before that was willing to protect each other no matter what, and now, here, in front of him were his two sons, showing him what loyalty and family love really meant.

"Why did you do it?" Alec asked.

"We wanted to surprise you for your birthday, dad." Rafe said. Both, he and Max had tears in their eyes already. "I overheard you and papa the other day, you said you wanted him to take you back to Paris for your birthday and we couldn't go because of the evaluations, so I thought that maybe we could bring Paris instead. I'm sorry dad, we just wanted to surprise you. I had all planned, but then we summoned the wrong vines and things just messed up from there."

Alec knelt and smiled at their kids. "Come here, you two." He told the kids, opening his arms to embrace them. They both were starting to sob.

"I'm assuming," Magnus said, trying to keep it cool; he hated when the kids cried, it always managed to break his heart, "that Clary portaled you all here and she's taking care of the kids?"

"Yes," Simon said, "Rafe called us and when we called Clary and Jace to ask for reinforcements they said he had called them too, so we took our kids to the Institute and she portaled us here."

Magnus just nodded and snapped his fingers, making a portal appear in the nearest wall. "Thank you all for your help, I think I can take it from here. Now, if you please? I'd like to have some alone time with my family."

Simon, Izzy and Jace shared a look.

"Don't be so hard on them," Jace said, "they are kids, they were just trying to surprise Alec."

"Please…" Magnus added, pointing to the portal.

The three adults nodded and walked to the portal, immediately disappearing from view, but not without giving their nephews some sympathetic smiles. The two kids were in each of his dad's arms, crying inconsolably.

"I'm sorry, papa." Rafe said as soon as the portal vanished in the air. "I swear everything was my fault. Max didn't want to do it. I forced him and-"

"We..." Magnus interrupted him, "...are going to talk about what you two did tomorrow." He said, wiping the tears from both his sons' eyes. "Today we are just going to celebrate your dad's birthday."

Max and Rafe shared confused looks. They were certainly expecting a lecture and not that.

"And since we all are already awake and it's barely 4am, I think we can do some actual celebrating. This little failed plan of yours gave me an idea." Magnus said, snapping his fingers. The entire room vibrated and in the blink of an eye everything was as it had been before. The furniture returned to its original state, the paint covering both Max and Rafe cleaned out, and the Chairman unfroze. The poor cat immediately jumped from the pedestal where he had been posing as a lovely Parisian ice sculpture and hid under the couch. "We can't go on vacation right now because we all have responsibilities here in the next couple of weeks, but that doesn't mean that we can't go and spend this special day in the city of love."

"Are you serious?" Alec asked surprised.

"Yes, my love." Magnus said, with a smile. "We can go and spend the day there. We can have breakfast in that place you liked so much the first time we went and then we could go and see some parts of the city. We'll have to go back with more time, obviously, but we can try to make the most of it. Our kids here had a very good idea."

Rafe and Max smiled at the same time, the tears were now long forgotten.

"Then let's go get ready!" Alec exclaimed excitedly. He looked so relaxed and happy that Magnus wondered how come he had not thought of that before. A day in Paris was a perfect way to celebrate a birthday.

"Why waste so much time, Alexander?" Magnus said, snapping his fingers again and changing all their attires. "We have a full day ahead of us."

The kids smiled all happy and immediately ran to the portal.

"Not so fast there, monkeys." Magnus said, stopping his kids. "What did we say about portals? We do not use them without an adult."

The kids stopped in their tracks and rolled their eyes while waiting for their dads. Alec immediately grabbed Rafe and Max's hands while Magnus picked up their poor traumatized cat.

"The Chairman is coming too?" Alec questioned, giving Magnus a soft smile.

"Of course, darling. After what these two did to him, he deserves a day off too. Besides, he's always loved the flat in Paris."

"Fair enough," Alec said with a smile, "shall we?"

Magnus nodded frantically and quickly joined his family. He put an arm around Alec and together, they all stepped inside the vortex of light.

"Happy Birthday, Alexander." Magnus whispered when the first glimpse of Paris appeared before their eyes.

It was a beautiful day outside. The sun was out and proudly illuminating every corner of the city, the sky was clear, and colorful birds sang enlivening the ambience. It was a perfect day in the city of love and Magnus was sure they were going to have a great time. First, because they were together, and second, because like Audrey Hepburn had once said, Paris was always a good idea.


End file.
